So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was. (Molly Ivins 1944-2007)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Hold the phone! My nasty neo-con neighbor, or nanene, just told me McCain will win it in a landslide because "he picked a winner." Sporting his smiley-faced tee shirt with the caption "Imagine no liberals," he attacked me early this morning, before I'd even had coffee, with a rant about NBC. Seems last night O’Reilly used a still frame of CNBC showing Palin and under her picture asking “How many houses does Sarah Palin bring to the Republican ticket?” (The answer is three.) Twelve hours later, my nanene is still fuming.

"They're in the tank for Obama, and that proves it!" he screamed, his face getting redder with ever word. For a Fox fan to be upset that one network is "in the tank" for a particular party or candidate struck me as somewhat surreal.

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Last week Jon Stewart called FNC's "fair and balanced" slogan an insult "to people with brains." Then he added, "Barack Obama could cure cancer and they'd figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster." I doubt that my nanene would find any humor in that, but I did.

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I wonder if Fox will report "no oil spills" in the Gulf after Gustav like they did after Katrina. When Gov. Jindal (R- La) was on that network in June pushing for more offshore drilling, he was asked of his concern about oil spills. He answered, "You know, that’s one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills."

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In reality, the hurricanes caused offshore oil spills so large that they could be seen from space. The Minerals Management Service reported that 113 oil platforms were “totally destroyed” — a total of 124 offshore spills. In fact, oil seeped onshore into southeast Louisiana, which saw 44 onshore and offshore oil spills. The EPA called the spills “worse than the worst-case scenario.” Even oil industry representatives admitted: “nature can always topple you.” It’s hard to see how this is a “great unwritten success story.”

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He, too, was being vetted at the time to be McCain's running mate. Talk about fishing in the shallow end of the gene pool!

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Now the Republicans are trying to figure out how to turn Hurricane Gustav into an advantage for their convention. Never mind the devastation to all the people affected by the storm, how can we make it work for us? The main benefit it gives them, they've concluded, is that Bush and Cheney are scheduled to speak on the first night and with the storm will have to leave immediately afterwards, or if it's bad enough, maybe they won't show up at all! They even called it a blessing. Can you believe these cads? The video is here.

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And in case you missed the spectacle that Focus on the Family made about praying for rain in Denver when Obama gave his speech at Invesco Field, it's here. (9-1 Update - the video is back on YouTube.) From what I could tell, the weather could not have been more perfect. Maybe God is a Democrat.